


Let's Just Drive

by Jebbler



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Friends to Lovers, road trip au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-21
Updated: 2014-12-23
Packaged: 2018-03-02 14:24:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2815295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jebbler/pseuds/Jebbler
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"This is bullshit, let's go on a road trip."</p>
<p>"...A road trip?"</p>
<p>Korra and Asami have been friends since 9th grade and practically joined at the hip. Now that they're seventeen, graduated, and clueless on what to do with themselves, Korra proposes a road trip.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Why not?

Asami Sato knew, as anyone else did, that time was not relevant to how the world worked. People are the only organisms that have ever cared about the minute on the hour. Every other living thing can just drift aimlessly through life, not a care in the world except to mate and pass on their genes. She supposed that some humans were like that as well, not the mating part (although that is not mutually exclusive by no means) but the ability to be 'chill' as they say.

Asami also knew that it was practically impossible for her to be 'chill'. She imagined it in a graph form, the highest point of the line being someone with no cares in the world (ex: a baby) and the lowest point, resting nicely on the x-axis, would be her and maybe a handful of other people like the president or something. There was simply too much work for her to do that made her a nervous wreck. It was a wonder on how she hadn't been broken yet.

Throwing her office door open (it had actually been her fathers but ever since that scandal managed to get him imprisoned she figured that she could take the office AND the company) she slinked to her large office chair, the heels she'd worn to graduation clicking harshly on the hardwood floor. She also threw off her graduates cap and gown, draping gracefully on the ground.

Glancing at all the 'top-secret' documents that Hiroshi had hidden away the day he was taken in no longer had an effect on her. Used to, only reading her father's mad scribbles about his inventions could bring her to tears. That was years ago though and now she only had these writings of him left. Sure, she could always visit him in prison but...Asami shuddered to think of the things that would be said.

Honestly it'd probably go like this:

"Asami."

"Father."

"Have you taken over the company yet?"

"I'm not eighteen yet father."

"Oh...Yes."

It would be so awkward and even now she feared the silence afterwards would kill her.

Now, the documents before her were like puzzle pieces. Very confusing and almost non-coherent puzzle pieces. It was true that she couldn't technically inherit the company until she was eighteen, and even then she would need a supervisor breathing over neck almost every minute until she turned twenty-one. It was also true that she resented her father for what he had done but she still felt that it would be a waste to not carry on his genius.

And a genius he was, the more Asami looked and studied the papers the more she realized it. Although they didn't come together quite yet it was clear he had a plan and that plan was something big. If only she could just crack the codes that he scribbled everywhere on the top and backs of his projects. Her poor father, being consumed by paranoia just days before he was exposed, must've expected that someone would raid his office and steal his work.

Opening the bottom draws of the desk, Asami pulled out the essentials in code cracking (one shot glass, one bottle of whisky that was older than Hiroshi, pen and paper) and got to work.

She was only through her second shot and had made a slight breakthrough when the study was filled with her ringtone (Apres Mois by Regina Spektor) and the intense vibration in her pocket shocked her out of concentration.

"Yes Korra?" Asami barely had to guess at who it was, Korra was the only person she'd given her cell number to.

"We were supposed to meet after graduation for drinks, or did you forget?" Asami rolled her eyes, although Korra sounded genuinely distressed, the promise of milkshakes (when Korra said drinks she never meant alcohol) was not nearly as tempting as putting together her father's puzzle.

"It's not that I forgot-"

"It's that you didn't care."

She wasn't too off with that, "It's just that bigger things were on my mind." She glanced wistfully at the papers that seemed to draw her eyes to them.

"You could've at least called." Now Asami really felt bad.

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay, I understand that your dad's weird invention thingy is more important than your bestest friend ever."

Korra really knew how to work the guilt angle, "Look, how about you come over and help me with this and then we can go out and get drinks later."

"Actually, I'm already outside your house. I just needed you to open the gate."

Sighing, Asami reached in the same drawer that held the essentials in code cracking for her tablet that controlled basically all the mansion's electronics and went to the front gate's security camera. Sure as shit, Korra was sitting in her broken down, baby blue, junk heap of a car. With a swipe of her finger, the gate opened just long enough for Korra to put on through it then closed immediately after her entrance.

"Thanks!" Then she hung up before Asami could say 'you're welcome'.

Realizing that she still had the kit out, Asami set to cleaning up, panic hurrying her movements. While Korra didn't mind if she drank she generally disproved of it happening around her (Korra's exact words: "I get it, you crumble under society's expectations from time to time, but just try not to do it near me, please.") and Asami respected that. It was only evening anyways and she didn't need more than she already had.

Two knocks, one at the top of the door and one at the bottom, told her that Korra had somehow made it all the way up the staircase in less than a minute.

"Hang on!" Asami looked at the shot glass she held in her hands (the whiskey already disposed in it's original drawer) and then surveyed the room. Not many places to hide things...On her way to the door she just stuffed it under one of her fathers atrocious purple pillows that absolutely did not go with the couch at all.

Opening the door revealed her best friend in the whole wide world, Korra, looking as if a lumberjack threw up on her. There were no opening hugs or anything, she beelined past Asami and went straight to the office chair (what she says is the most comfortable piece of furniture in the house) and reclined.

"Change of wardrobe?" She strode back to the desk and bent over it, looking at the documents and the bare bones of what she had decoded so far.

"Yeah, I figured that I should try something new. It's cute as hell right?" When Asami turned to look at her outfit again Korra winked at her.

She scoffed at her friend's cockiness, "It's really adorable. I always liked plaid." Her mind was elsewhere now as she shuffled the documents up and released them to Korra who was making grabby hands for them.

"I feel like I'm close to a breakthrough but I can't make sense of the corner code on the first page."

"First page?"

Asami forgot that they weren't actually numbered, she had just looked at them in a certain order for so long that she'd assigned them numbers, "The one with the sketches of hummingbirds."

Korra made an affirming noise and took a moment to look closer.

The code mentioned had been what seemed like a random assortment of numbers occasionally being stopped by periods. At first she had thought it was an old code trick where the coder would make each number mean the letter of the alphabet that it corresponded to (a=1, b=2, etc.) but that was too easy and after further inspection it was gibberish if done that way.

"Asami." Suddenly Korra slammed the precious papers on the desk.

"Yes Korra?"

"This is bullshit, let's go on a road trip."

"...A road trip?"

Korra leapt out of the chair and threw her hands in the air, "Yes! Haven't you always wanted to go on one!?"

"I think it's you that's always wanted to that. And even then you've never talked about it before."

"That's because it just hit me! I was reading through that stuff and none of it really made any sense to me. Then you said the thing about mockingbirds and I thought 'do mocking birds even show up in this town?' and I realized that neither of us have actually been out of town in our entire lives. Or seen a real live mockingbird." As she ranted she paced around the room, stopping only to pick a book out of the bookshelf, turn through it, then put it back in it's wrong place.

Asami thought about it. In her seventeen years on this planet she'd never been anywhere else but Los Angeles. It was where her dad made his living and it was where he wanted her to continue making it. She supposed that she would just grow up and have kids with whatever poor sucker that she decided to marry and keep the cycle going forever. That was a suffocating probability that she'd never considered before. If necessity was the mother of invention then monotony would surely be the death of it. If invention died then she had nothing else to do with her life. If she had nothing else to do with her life then she might as well kick the bucket right along with it.

"Earth to Asami! You okay?" She broke out of her anxious thoughts to Korra waving a hand in front of her face.

She took a deep but shaky breath before answering, "Fine. Just, thinking."

"I really didn't mean to give you a panic attack, " Korra scratched the back of her neck, worry lacing her voice, "So, is that a yes?"

It only took another second in that stuffy office room and one glance at her best friend's concerned face before Asami's answer became clear, "You know what? Why the hell not?"


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't actually know anything about driving so excuse my faulty knowledge about 'left turns' and what not

Asami met Korra in ninth grade.

Asami had been sitting alone in her own little corner of the cafeteria, reading her personal copy of _War and Peace,_ when someone tapped at her shoulder. She looked up towards the odd offender (it was odd because in her short life no one has ever attempted to get attention that way before), only a little disgruntled.

Vibrant was the only word that sprung to mind when Asami saw her eyes. They reminded her of a deer in the head lights, one with eyes that were a shade of blue not even the best of authors could begin to describe, "Um, I'm new here and this is the only empty table in this place so..." She trailed off, looking at her expectantly.

Unfortunately, Asami was a young genius (as her teachers had called her) and had the disease that geniuses were often plagued with; No social skills. This was, in fact, her first year in public school as her father had been kind enough to relinquish her from his overprotective homeschooling grasp. So all she could do was shrug and let the girl do whatever it is she wanted.

That's how they became friends. No massive show of affection. It was simple, Korra sat with Asami for an entire week, eating in silence, until she finally grew the courage to speak. They didn't hit it off immediately of course, it was a slow build starting off with an introduction then a cheesy joke. It was nice. Asami began to love their talks during the too short lunch hour, her reading being cast aside for the time being.

She didn't have enough foresight to realize that new girl would become the most important person in her life only a few years later.

-

"Hey, 'sami!?" Korra woke Asami out of her reverie, "What turn do we take to get out of L.A?"

"Round this corner then turn left." She was still a bit out of it. After taking Korra up on her offer they had both spent the entire day packing and running around their too large town, tying up all previous loose ends and reassuring Korra's parents that they would be safe (she could go as long as she called them every night). When nighttime came they were filled with a strange mix of exhaust and excitement making them both stay up in bed talking about the upcoming trip. Of course Asami's weird sleeping patterns never gave her a break and she found herself getting less sleep than Korra, waking up hours before they were supposed to go.

Asami shifted, disliking the familiar feeling of her skin sticking to the cracked leather of Korra's car. At the time it had seemed like a good idea to take the old thing ("It feels more genuine!" Korra kept saying) but now she was starting to have regrets. The car had no working ac and even with the windows rolled all the way down the Californian heat still plagued Asami's fair skin.

Other cars passed them by making Asami pay more attention to Korra. Her hunched, slightly stressed, position at the wheel was far from how she normally looked when driving. Korra usually drove as if it were a competition, never allowing many people to pass her even if it meant putting her life in slightly more danger than it normally was. This spirit of Korra's led to many distressful driving lessons led by Asami.

"Are you actually being cautious?" She had to ask, the feeling of Korra going slow in a car was too surreal.

"Well, since we're going on a long trip I thought I should try to be careful. This is the only car we're gonna get for the entire thing, and yes, I know you're rich, but I'm not letting you buy me a new car."

Korra certainly made a point. Asami had tried, in vain, over the course of their friendship to buy her or even give her a car that wasn't a death trap, but every time Korra shot her down. It was Korra being stubborn or selfless and Asami couldn't decide which.

"I just thought it was weird to see you not break a single road law in an hour. That's a new record."

"Oh ha, ha. Very funny Asami."

That was snappier than usual, "Are you feeling alright? Do you need me to drive?"

Her friend sighed and took her eyes off the road to glance at Asami, "Yes-no, I dunno. Maybe?" When she didn't elaborate Asami made a noise for her to continue, "It's just I've never been out of town before and now we're going out of state. I know what I was saying yesterday made it sound like a joke but I really am stressed about not seeing the world or travelling and at the same time I'm scared of it? It's stupid..."

Asami let the words rattle around in her head for a while like she always did when absorbing information. Korra doesn't get scared of many things (on that list are: spiders, heights, and the occasional tomato) so it was always a hard thing for her to admit it. The fact that she's scared of going places is a little shocking though, even now Asami can fully remember Korra's room and the walls covered in magazine clippings and posters of all around the world; Going into her room was almost like a tiny adventure itself.

"It's not stupid." Asami finally answered.

"What was that?"

"It's not stupid. Going to some place you've never been before  _is_ really terrifying; Especially if you don't know where it is that you're going. I mean, we could be ambushed by rednecks in the south or kidnapped by carnies and forced to learn how to juggle," That got a chuckle out of Korra, "And even if the probability of that happening is a veritable zero, it'd still be a great story to tell."

"If we live." Korra was grinning now and pushing the gas pedal just a bit more than she probably needed to.

"If we live." And with that, Asami's job was done. Reaching over to the car's radio, Asami flicked it on and once again was left to wonder.

She wondered if anyone back in Los Angeles would miss her. Probably not. Not even her own father. That seemed like a pretty bitter statement but it was true. The only other friends she had ever made were all fake ones; The ones that came after tales of her money and beauty spread through the school. Some of them could hold a decent conversation but never about anything _she_ wanted to talk about. Although Korra was like that in a way, poor girl knew nothing of engineering or mechanics in general, but she always let Asami go on about it, smiling and laughing when she truly got passionate.

That was the difference between Korra and other people. Others didn't listen, they heard. When Asami made the mistake of talking to Juila Carter in the ninth grade about the Italian Renaissance, she had lost her interest (and her friendship) immediately. But with Korra everything was different. She could see that in her eyes when she started ranting about what some fictional or non fictional character in her most recent book had been doing. The best part is: Korra also remembered. Take anything that Asami said to Korra recently (something she 'nerded out about' as Korra so lovingly called it) and she would be able to hold a conversation about it. Julia Carter couldn't do that.

Asami's point, she supposed, was that Korra was real. It especially came out when she talked about music (something that Asami admittedly knew nothing about). Asami Sato may have been the genius in the car but when Korra went off about playing her guitar or piano or whatever musical instrument she's already mastered, it was clear that Korra was the prodigy.

And she loved her for it.

"Hey do you wanna see the world's biggest cappuccino machine?"

"Only if it works."

"We'll have to see it to find out."

Asami, being as lost in her mind as she is, looked around for any indication of where they were going. All she found was the fateful sign that read: "Wrld's bigst Capucino Mahine". It was barely readable due to the letters being worn with age but at the bottom were some passable directions to the area. She shrugged and agreed to go. It wasn't like she could just leave the car and fall asleep on the roadside (even though she so desperately wanted to). Also there was this nagging feeling about how road trips were supposed to be full of things like this.

After a solid thirty minutes of driving and another couple of naps from Asami, they made their way into what seemed to be a town straight out of a Dr.Seuss book. The houses were built with no plan in mind making pretty much every street or, to Asami's horror, every second house different. They were painted with the garish colors that came from a palette of what seemed to be care bear vomit (sometimes, all the sides would be a different color and Asami was forced to look away).

"This place looks like were Satan's grandma lives."

"I don't think it's that bad," Korra chuckled, "I mean, I like their amount of gnome usage."

Reluctantly, Asami admitted that they did have some pretty nice gnome usage. The only thing consistent in this town was the amount of gnomes they had in their front yards (every house had three gnomes but every fifth house would have sixth), it was like they shopped at the same gnome store.

They took one turn at a Mcdonalds (the only familiar building Asami had seen in a while) and down a beaten path that looked and felt like it had only been paved once in its sad life.

"Are you sure it's down here?" Asami asked, grabbing the bottom of the seat to keep herself from getting a concussion.

"Yeah I think I can see it now-" At that moment they went over a particularly large bump, shifting the contents of the backseat and making one, incredibly precious, guitar case hit the ceiling.

"Oh fuck." Asami said.

"Oh fuck." Korra said back, her voice on the very edge of panic.

Asami didn't know how Korra did it but she did. Korra made it all the way to the "Wrld's bigst Capucino Mahine" without stopping once to check on her baby. Although, when they got out, it was possible that not even an army could hold Korra away from the back seat. Asami just leaned against the car and stretched, she knew how much that guitar meant to Korra and if it were broke then not even her best friend would be able to comfort her.

"Is she okay?" Asami asked after five minutes of staring at an unbelievably murderous looking gnome.

"Do you think there are any guitar repair stores in the middle of nowhere?" Korra came back around, the case strapped to her back.

"Is it that bad?"

"It depends. A string is broken but it's not like the neck snapped." She was still slightly panicky and Asami saw the way that Korra tapped the black strap across her chest impatiently.

"Well, let's go up to that building by the "Wrld's bigst Capucino Mahine". There's gotta be someone working there that might know."

Korra didn't nod or say okay, she just began walking towards the tiny, and worn down yellow building, not checking to see if Asami was close behind.


	3. Chapter 3

"Yo is anyone here!?" Korra opened the jingly door of the tiny yellow building urgently.

"Hang on!" A girl's voice called from the back of the shop.

It was a shop, or at least Asami thought it was. On the paint chipped walls was merchandise ranging everywhere from trucker hats to bobble heads. There were even tiny little cappuccino figurines. She picked up one to play with it, thinking of the market value there could be for miniature kitchen appliances.

"What is it that you guys need?" A girl with a short stylish bob came out from the storage room and smiled charmingly at Korra.

"Hey I'm, uh, Korra and that's Asami." Korra gestured to herself then vaguely behind her, "Do you know of any guitar repair shops around here?"

The girl bit her lip briefly, "There's not much around here I'm afraid, but I know a thing or two about guitars and we might have something in the back I can use."

In an instant all the anxiety on Korra's face was replaced with eternal gratitude, "Thank you so much!" She began to follow the clerk to the backroom and Asami followed suite, not wanting to be left alone.

The backroom, if possible, was mustier smelling and even more yellow than the front. It had a random assortment of things littered all around it and stuff that was haphazardly placed upon crooked shelves. Asami fought the urge to sort it out for the girl.

"My name's Opal by the way." Opal said, rummaging through a box that looked a lot like a pirate chest out of a story book. Too colorful to be an actual pirate chest but just dull enough to look like it's been through some shit.

"I can't thank you enough for this Opal." Korra's voice was overflowing with thanks to the point where it sounded a little bit like a kiss-ass to Asami.

Opal pulled out a...Asami didn't quite know what that was but then again she'd never been a musically adept person. It looked like guitar string and a tool to fix it and what not, "It's no problem dude, I hope you have a broken string though because this is all I have."

Korra began to unsnap the case and pull it off her back, "That's exactly what's wrong with it!" Then she paused, glancing nervously in between the guitar and Opal, "Uh how much is this gonna cost by the way?"

Opal seemed to be calculating the numbers in her head, "Hmm, well. For a pretty girl like you I doubt that It'll cost anything at all."

Asami's eyes widened, not much did she get to experience someone (especially a complete stranger) hitting on Korra. It occurred to her though that the reverse has happened plenty of times.

"Uh, well I..." Korra was practically sputtering now, she was never very good with words to begin with, "Thank you."

Thank you? That was all she could say? Asami winced inwardly, Korra must be beating herself up for that one.

Picking up a random rubix cube that was (for some ungodly reason) sorted in with the t-shirt and hat section of the storage room, Asami began to solve it. She had always been good at puzzles and finding something like a rubix cube while two musicians were doing whatever kind of courting dance that just was is incredibly helpful. She had read somewhere that puzzles help the mind expand or something like that, and she could always use a little expanding.

Shifting the blocks on the tiny cube, Asami thought about everything (as long as it distanced her from the awkward flirting going on it was good in her book) that got them there in that particular moment. If Korra hadn't been so attached to that guitar they would never have been there. If that guitar hadn't been given to Korra by her late Uncle she wouldn't have cared for it so much. If Korra hadn't been an aspiring musician when she was fourteen she would've never invited Asami over to show her how good she could play. If she hadn't invited Asami over then they wouldn't have became really close friends.

It went on like that for Asami until she was able to retrace it back to why President Raiko had been elected and not his opponent when Korra whistled to snap her out of it.

"Hey Asami, we're leaving now." Her face was slightly flushed and Opal was nowhere to be seen.

"Where'd she go? Did she fix the guitar?" Asami (somewhat regretfully) placed the rubix cube back in its original position.

"She left to go help some customer out and yes. Alsowehaveadateinlikeanhour."

"What was that?"

Korra looked away from Asami and glued her eyes on a random point in space, "We have a date with her in an hour."

This was shocking for Asami because two reasons: Korra's flirting had never worked before (Asami likened it to a cat trying to jump to an easy to climb ledge and falling on their face), and that she was apparently invited on said date.

"We?" Asami said incredulously.

"Yeah 'we'. You know I suck at dating so I convinced her to let you come." It was true, no relationship that Korra ever had lasted more than two weeks (at least in Asami's experience), "Also this road trip was supposed to be for just the two of us so I thought-"

"You thought that I'd like to sit next to you while you clumsily go through compliments and completely ignore me."

"No! It's just that," Korra scratched the back of her neck, "You bring out the best in me y'know? If you're there then I have someone to bounce off of. Honestly I don't think I'm gonna get anywhere with her in the first place..."

"Then why go?"

"Because I thought a free meal was pretty sweet and I like her as a friend!" Then she did that damnable pout, the one where her eyes could convince a freight train to stop in its path.

And Asami, as loath as she was to stay in this town longer, said yes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a short chapter because Christmas and all but I promise after the holiday I'll make something bigger


End file.
